The Desert Vipers scored a comfortable victory over the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in a low points game on Wednesday (18 January) in Dubai.The 7-wicket win was the Vipers’ second victory in two games, but the The Knight Riders have lost all three matches and are in a tricky situation.
They did not get off to the best start as the batsmen lost two wickets in the first three overs. Brandon King and Colin Ingram set some limits to round out the power play, but the lefty didn’t last long. King then teamed with Challis Atharanka to revive the innings and add 49 for the fourth wicket. After 13 overs the Knight Riders were in a pretty good position at 101/3 after 13 overs and could have scored over 160 if they had batted wisely. But Wanindu Hasaranga came back for another spell and from back-to-back deliveries he took them back with wicket of Asalanka and Andre Russell. After Russell was sacked for the Golden Duck, Knighthis Riders didn’t have a reliable hitter to help throw powerful punches at Death. Hasaranga then continued with a brilliant wicket-maid on Todd, who saw him sack Sunil Narin.
King was able to help himself to his 50, but all the opposing wickets lost momentum as Knight his rider only posted his 133 on the board. The Vipers opening strike gave their team a dream start in the chase with Rohan Mustafa hitting five boundaries to run just 10 to 23. Akeel Hossein ended the carnage and Russell quickly fluttered Colin Munro’s wicket, but Sam Billings and Alex Hales made sure the chase was fine.
The duo led the team to his 75/2 at half time, with Hales doing most of the damage to turn the Heat on. The England opener scored his two back-to-back boundaries from Russell and from just 36 balls he scored 50 and Rahil he added two more boundaries from Kumara to nearly end the chase. I was allowed to. Narine put him away for 64 in the next over, but the damage was already done when the Vipers attacked him with 26 balls to go.
Brief scores: Abu Dhabi Knight Riders 133/8 in 20 overs (Brandon King 57; Wanindu Hasaranga 3/18) lost to Desert Vipers 135/3 in 15.4 overs (Alex Hales 64, Sam Billings 35*; Sunil Narine 1/26) by 7 wickets